PA930EE Marriage Practicum

 This course focuses on developing skills that are essential to deacons in the pastoral setting of pre-marriage counseling and preparation: the ability to assess and summarize various information to the sacramental nature of marriage, and the capacity to develop a pastoral care approach to the couple’s vision of the wedding. Both challenges require deacons to think purposefully and integrate various communication skills. Deacons apply these skills in several contexts: couple premarital meetings, marriage team meetings, and marriage presentations. Being able to understand and communicate fundamental marriage issues, identify the sacramental challenges, and delineate essential elements of alternatives or recommendations require a comprehensive understanding of marriage in the United States multicultural and interfaith society. Being able to develop and refine a pastoral care approach is essential in evangelizing the Church’s position on marriage and influencing newly married couples to live out a sacramental marriage. In this course, deacons learn how to analyze pre-marriage situations, purposefully develop approaches for structure and style for each couple, and construct methods to handle conflicts among couples. 

This Marriage Practicum course, through which we deliver to deacons and ministry students, contributes to students' development and specifically includes working with students to improve overarching ministry objectives. The goals and outcomes of the course are based on the four-fold dimensions--spiritual, intellectual, pastoral, and human. Spiritual Formation sustains a lifetime of service and advances that continual conversion of mind and heart so necessary for today’s society. Intellectual Formation assimilates professional theological education consonant to represent and apply the Church’s Tradition to today’s world. Pastoral Formation develops capacities for religious and public leadership. Human Formation involves the attainment of the maturity demanded of ordained ministry as a deacon. These dimensions are found in the National Directory of Formation, Ministry, and Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States. Also, students in this course gain knowledge about topics that are essential issues in ministry, specifically to this course how they relate to marriage formation.